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SwiftPro tests and repairs backflow preventers in Springfield, and the yearly test is $250 a home (normally $300). Call SwiftPro, rated 5.0 stars across 1,130 reviews, at (703) 997-9757, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
SwiftPro’s plumbers in Springfield are rated 5.0 stars across 1,130 reviews and work under Virginia Class A contractor license 2705192276. Backflow testing in Springfield, from North Springfield to Newington Forest: we test the sprinkler, pool or fire line device and get the report to the County. Book it at (703) 997-9757 or online. We’re rated 5.0 stars across 1,130 reviews, and we set the visit around the date on your notice.
5.0 stars across 1,130 reviews
Our plumbing team in front of three of our vans.
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Licensed and insuredVirginia Class A contractor #2705192276
24/7 emergency serviceWe answer day or night, and we will tell you honestly when we can get there.
Our own plumbers, our own trucksNobody here is a subcontractor with a magnet on the door
The price is settled before the workYou see the number in writing before anything is taken apart
What it costs
The yearly test is $250 a home, normally $300, and you can pay for it online. HOA and condo communities that book their units together pay $175 to $225 a unit. A new preventer, installed and tested, runs $800 to $1,200. Those are for a home’s device up to 1 inch; where an HOA unit or a new preventer lands in its range is set at the house and quoted before we start.
Yearly backflow test, one home
$250 (normally $300)
HOA or condo units booked together, per unit
$175 to $225
New backflow preventer, installed and tested
$800 to $1,200
Repair or rebuild after a failed test
Priced in writing before any work
Prices checked .
A device that fails is priced in writing before any work. Most can be rebuilt with new springs, seats or rubber parts; a body cracked by a freeze gets replaced. Either way it’s tested again afterward, which Virginia requires.
Booking for an HOA, townhouse or condo community? Here’s what each unit pays when the community books one visit. And what a backflow test costs covers what moves the price up or down.
What’s different in Springfield
Springfield has some of the oldest housing in this part of Fairfax County. The typical home in North Springfield went up in 1957, two in three before 1960, and Ravensworth and Kings Park are almost entirely 1960s houses. None of those came with an irrigation system. If yours has one, a past owner or a landscaper added it, and the backflow device came with that job, not with the house. So the age of the house says little about the device: a 1957 rambler in North Springfield can carry a sprinkler valve from the 2000s, and the old test tag wired to it, if one is still there, is the better clue.
That’s why the part of the County program that matters most here is registration. Fairfax County asks anyone with a lawn irrigation system or a water-based fire suppression system to make sure it’s registered, and it keeps a form for exactly that. A system put in twenty years ago by someone you never met is the kind most likely to be missing from the list, and the first test tells you whether the device still works at all.
The program reaches past sprinklers, too. It lists in-ground pools, hot tubs piped straight to the house water and steam saunas. In a Kings Park or West Springfield backyard, a pool or a spa almost always went in long after the house, so it’s worth a look at how it fills before you assume there’s nothing to test.
Your test month comes from the County’s tax map grid, and Springfield spreads across several. Around North Springfield and Lynbrook it’s September. Kings Park and Cardinal Forest test in November. West Springfield, Rolling Valley and Orange Hunt are April, and Newington Forest and Saratoga are May. Go by your own notice, not the neighbor’s two streets over. Our Fairfax County backflow testing page has the countywide side.
Neighborhood by neighborhood
Census figures for the owner-occupied homes in each place, and what usually brings the test notice to houses like these.
| Place | Median home built | Most homes are | Heated with | What usually needs the test |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Springfield | 1968 | single-family houses, about 6 in 10 | gas, about 6 in 10 | A sprinkler system or pool added later, where there is one. |
| West Springfield | 1972 | single-family houses, about 5 in 10 | gas, about 7 in 10 | A sprinkler system or pool added later, where there is one. |
| Newington | 1981 | townhouses, about 6 in 10 | electricity, about 6 in 10 | Mostly the association’s sprinklers, plus any yard system an owner added. |
| Newington Forest | 1984 | townhouses, about 5 in 10 | electricity, about 7 in 10 | Mostly the association’s sprinklers, plus any yard system an owner added. |
| North Springfield | 1957 | single-family houses, about 9 in 10 | gas, about 9 in 10 | A sprinkler system or pool added later, where there is one. |
| Kings Park | 1966 | single-family houses, about 8 in 10 | gas, about 9 in 10 | A sprinkler system or pool added later, where there is one. |
| Ravensworth | 1964 | single-family houses, nearly all | gas, nearly all | A sprinkler system or pool added later, where there is one. |
By the numbers
From the Census Bureau’s 2020 to 2024 survey, owner-occupied homes unless it says otherwise.
When it’s time
If the sprinklers were there when you bought, there may be no record of the device with the County at all. Registering it puts it where the County expects it, and a test the same season tells you whether a decades-old device needs a repair kit or a replacement.
A letter from the water utility with a date on it means there’s a testable device on your line, usually on the lawn sprinklers, and its test is due.
On an RPZ, a little water when the pressure jumps can be normal. A steady stream from the opening underneath means a check valve isn’t sealing, and it won’t pass.
Need backflow testing in Springfield?
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Before the first hard freeze
A device that sits full of water all winter is the most common reason it fails the spring test. Around here, get this done by the end of October.
On most houses it’s outside by the foundation: a brass valve on two pipes standing out of the ground, with a cap on top. That’s a PVB. An RPZ or double check may sit in a basement or a box in the ground instead.
Turn off the valve that feeds the sprinklers, usually in the basement or utility room just past the main shutoff. Leave the rest of the house on.
Most systems here get blown out with compressed air so nothing sits in the lines or the device. If yours hasn’t been, that’s the step that matters.
Set the device’s two shutoff handles and its little test cocks about halfway, near 45 degrees, so no pocket of water stays trapped inside to freeze.
An insulated cover helps a PVB through the winter. On an RPZ, never block the relief valve opening underneath: it has to be able to dump water.
Some owners bring the device inside for the winter. Check the rules first: Loudoun Water wants a device that came off tested again when it goes back on, and Fairfax County wants it back on before your testing month.
Not sure it was drained, or saw water coming from the cap when the sprinklers ran? Call us. We’ll look at it, and if it cracked, you get the reason and a price before anything gets replaced.
Who sends the notice
Fairfax County’s Cross Connection Program wants testable backflow devices on lawn sprinklers, fire sprinklers, pools and hot tubs tested every year by a tester on the County’s Authorized Vendor List. The tester files the report and the County emails you when it’s in; nothing after 14 days, and the County asks you to check with them. Source.
Each property gets its own testing month from the County’s tax map grid, and the report is due before that month ends. A device that fails has to be repaired or replaced and retested within 10 business days of the failed test, and one taken off for the winter goes back on before the testing month. Source.
Our Virginia Class A contractor license, 2705192276, is on the side of the van.
Choosing a tester
Questions to ask anybody who offers to test it, us included.
In houses this age the device often hides in a basement corner where the sprinkler line leaves the house, or behind a shrub by the foundation. A tester who walks the house first finds it and tells you what type it is before you fill out the County’s form. If the last tag on it is years old or missing, plan on the first test also being the one that shows whether it still holds.
Since January 1, 2023, Virginia only accepts tests from a DPOR-certified Backflow Prevention Device Worker, and some places keep a list of their own on top. Ask to see the certificate before the gauge goes on.
Some utilities take it from the tester and some want it from you. Ask which, and keep a copy either way, so you can show the date if a second notice turns up.
Ask for the reason and a written price before anything gets taken apart, and whether the retest is part of it. A failed device runs on a deadline, so a tester who can also fix it saves you a second trip.
Two of our crew going over a work order before the day's calls.
From our Google reviews
5.0 stars across 1,130 reviews. Read them on our reviews page.
Zabi helped us with a complex plumbing problem. He explained clearly the problem and gave us various repair options. He is courteous, professional and highly experienced. We recommend him!
Where we work
Next door to Springfield: Burke, Annandale, Fairfax Station, Lorton and Alexandria.
Questions
Fairfax County asks owners with a lawn irrigation system or a water-based fire suppression system to make sure it’s registered, using its registration form. In Springfield, where most sprinklers were added after the house was built, those are the systems most likely to be missing.
It depends on the neighborhood: September around North Springfield and Lynbrook, November in Kings Park and Cardinal Forest, April in West Springfield and Rolling Valley, and May in Newington Forest and Saratoga. Your notice names the month for your parcel.
SwiftPro does, all over Springfield. We test the backflow preventer on your sprinkler system, fire line or pool in about 30 minutes, repair it on the same visit if it fails, and get the report where your water utility wants it. Call (703) 997-9757 or book online.
The yearly test is $250 a home, normally $300, and you can pay for it online. HOA and condo units booked together on one visit run $175 to $225 a unit. A new preventer, installed and tested, is $800 to $1,200. Where an HOA unit or a new preventer lands in its range is set at the house and quoted before we start, and a device that fails is quoted in writing before any repair. More in what a backflow test costs.
About 30 minutes a device. The water is off for a few of those minutes while the gauge readings are taken.
Ready when you are
Call, or send the form at the top. Have the notice handy: how many devices it lists and the date on it are what we need. Or pay $250 online and we’ll call to pick the day.
SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing
4230 Lafayette Center Dr N, Chantilly, VA 20151
44679 Endicott Dr, Suite 211, Ashburn, VA 20147
SwiftPro Plumber & Water Heaters
4200 Lafayette Center Dr, Suite N, Chantilly, VA 20151
Virginia Class A contractor license #2705192276
SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing is a licensed, BBB Accredited (A rating), independently owned heating, cooling and plumbing company in Chantilly, serving Springfield and the rest of Northern Virginia. Virginia contractor license #2705192276. 5.0 stars across 1,130 reviews on Google, Angi, Yelp, the BBB and Facebook. SwiftPro maintains a dedicated HVAC team and a dedicated plumbing team.
From SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing in Chantilly. Housing figures are the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, 2020 to 2024, for each place named; permit, water and sewer facts link to each office’s own page and were checked in September and October 2026.